Every time Governor Paterson hopes that his approval rating has dipped as low it possibly could and will inevitably start turning around, a new poll proves him wrong. The newest Qunnipiac poll released today finds their lowest approval ever for a sitting governor in New York at 28%. That's even a dramatic drop from mid-February when Paterson seemed bombarded with bad press and yet still maintained a 45% approval rating. The manager of the poll summed up its results by saying, "There's nothing good for Paterson in this poll."
Naturally the Q poll shows the numbers widening in potential 2010 match-ups between either Rudy Giuliani or Andrew Cuomo. What's worse is that now a majority of New Yorkers are saying that they'd prefer it if Paterson simply packed up his things and didn't run at all next year—even 49% of Democrats encouraging him to do so. The Quinnipiac pollster summed it up, "'Don't wait for 2010, Governor,' New Yorkers say, 'Announce now that you won't run.'"
The Daily News reports that such a sentiment isn't just coming from voters—Democratic leaders are beginning to talk about a deadline of this November for Paterson to shape up his numbers or ship out. The only problem with that as one donor puts it, "Nobody really wants to go to a sitting Democratic governor who's African-American and say, 'Hey. You're a disgrace. Get out.'"
Paterson himself hopes that the low numbers are mostly a bi-product of the difficult spot that the economy has put us in. He said, "Right now we have an historically high budget deficit. So it would follow that whoever is supervising it would have historically low poll numbers." And luckily, despite a rough stretch for the governor, he still has some allies. Assemblyman Keith Wright told the News, "This is a very savvy, astute student of politics and political trends... Did he need a minute to get his sea legs? Yes. But he'll be there."
